Invincible
by DarkEnigma322
Summary: Lina Gérard is a med student living in New York City and is currently in her fourth year of medical school. She lives down the hall from Steve Rogers. So, when Bucky comes to live with Steve, Lina finds herself befriending, and potentially falling for, the former Winter Soldier. (Warning: Some language scattered throughout.)
1. Chapter 1

**1\. Meetings in the Hall**

Lina Gérard breathed a sigh as she unlocked her apartment door. It had been a rather long day down at the hospital, with the seemingly endless stream of patients that had came through the E.R (which she would unwillingly admit was normal in a large city like New York.) She was tired and hungry and the only thing she really wanted to do was to grab some kind of junk food and catch up on some of favorite t.v shows on Netflix.

"Hmm...maybe I should order some pizza." she mumbled to herself, as she opened up the door.

Just as she was stepping through into her small foyer, she heard the echo of voices coming up the stairwell outside. She honestly didn't know how she had gotten so lucky. Be it fate, destiny, God, Gods, or the universe, something or someone had certainly smiled down on her when it came to who her neighbor was.

Steve Rogers a.k.a Captain America smiled at her as he and a couple of other men walked past. "Good evening, Lina. How are you?" he asked.

"Hey, Cap!" she replied. "I'm good, just getting home from my shift." She motioned toward the purple scrubs she was still wearing. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm alright." he said. "I don't believe I've introduced you to my friends. Sam, Bucky, this is Lina Gérard, she's my neighbor. Lina, this is Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. Bucky's going to be staying with me for a while."

Lina, of course, had heard of the both of them. Sam was the now famous "Falcon" that had earned himself a place within the Avengers team and Bucky was the former H.Y.D.R.A. operative known as "The Winter Soldier." When Steve had first found his old friend, Bucky had been arrested and charged with the many crimes he had committed as the Soldier.

As recent as just a few days before, there had been quite the media circus surrounding the trial and it's outcome. Bucky had been found "not guilty" by the jury, who had stated that H.Y.D.R.A.'s mind control and torture was enough to acquit him of the crimes. Some people were still calling for blood, stating that Mr. Barnes had gotten off scot-free after nearly seventy years of death and destruction doled out by he and his former affiliations. Since the commanders of H.Y.D.R.A. couldn't be identified and held accountable, The Winter Soldier was the next best scape goat.

Given that Steve was her neighbor and friend, Lina had followed the progression of the trial with keen interest and had been very relieved by the outcome. She was one of the people who, despite the fact that until that very moment had never met Bucky, didn't believe that he should be held accountable for something he had no control over.

Sam smiled and held out his hand for a shake, "Nice to meet you, Ms. Gérard."

"Likewise, Mr. Wilson." Lina replied, shaking his proffered hand.

Bucky, however, had yet to look at her or even acknowledge her existence, so Lina stepped forward, "Hello, Mr. Barnes, it's nice to meet you!" she said, ducking her head to try and meet his downcast gaze.

"It's nice to make your acquaintance." he mumbled, glancing helplessly up at Steve and then turning away, walking further down the hall to stand anxiously in front of Steve's door.

"I'm sorry, he's...well, he's going through a lot of changes and adjustments right now." Steve apologized.

"Ah, it's fine." she said, swatting her hand through the air. "I understand."

"You heard about the trial, then?" Sam asked.

"It's been headline news for weeks, so yeah, I couldn't really miss it." Lina shrugged.

"Do you...agree with the jury?" Steve asked, cautiously.

"I do." she honestly replied. "Judging by the few details that were released, I don't believe he's guilty of anything more than being mistreated and abused for 70 odd years."

Steve released a breath, relieved, "Thank you, Lina."

She smiled, which quickly turned into a frown as her stomach gave a hungry growl, "Well, if you boys will excuse me, I have a date with some pizza, my couch, and my Netflix account."

"Of course. Have a good night." Steve said, laughing.

"Yeah, I'll see you around." Sam chimed.

"Alright, you boys stay out of trouble." Lina grinned at them.

"We'll try our best, ma'am." Steve mock saluted her, as he turned to walk away.

"Oh, and Steve?" she called out.

"Yes?"

"If you or Bucky need anything, I'm right next door, all you have to do is ask."

"Thanks, Lina. That's very kind." Steve replied, knowing that, because of her compassionate heart, she had said that not only on his behalf but even more so on Bucky's.

"Tell him that not everyone is an asshole these days, Steve." she said, nodding toward Bucky still standing down the hall, referring to the bombardment of negative comments he had undoubtedly received. "Goodnight!"

"I'll try and 'night!"

Lina closed her door and set about ordering her pizza.

 **XXX**

 **This story is actually posted over on ArchiveOfOurOwn as a Bucky x Reader story, so if you prefer that, then head over there and take a look. (It's under the same title as this.) There's more chapters of that version posted there, but I will be adding what I have written to this too. I figured I'd post it here, since I haven't posted anything on this site in years. And since the guidelines of this site prohibit 'x reader' fanfiction, I figured I'd give the main character a name. Anyway, for those of you who don't have an account with Archive, you'll be able to read and get updates for this version of the story here. (I will be continuing it as a Bucky x Reader story over on Archive.) I do hope you enjoy it! Read and review, if you have the time. I'd very much like to hear your thoughts...**

 **~DarkEnigma322**


	2. Chapter 2

2\. A Panicked Meeting

It was several days later, when Lina next encountered Bucky. She had a few days off from the hospital before she had to go back on the night shift, so she was scrambling to get her many errands done before her schedule changed. As such, she had just been grocery shopping and was stuck lugging a heavy load of her food up the stairs to her apartment. As she reached her door, she happened to glance down the hall and notice a figure squatted down in front of Steve's door.

The person's long hair obscured their face, but judging by the visible metal hand gripping the side of his head, Lina knew it to be Bucky. As she observed him further, she noticed that his chest was heaving in an almost painful way, as if he couldn't catch his breath, and he was rocking back and forth, mumbling to himself. Lina's medical training kicked in and she quickly realized that he was most likely having a panic attack.

Setting down her many bags, she approached him, moving as if she were walking toward a wounded animal. "Mr. Barnes?" she called, in a calm voice.

No response.

"Mr. Barnes?...Bucky?" she tried again.

At the sound of his name, he lifted his head and Lina was able to see the unrestrained fear and panic in his striking blue eyes. He was looking in her direction, but it seemed as if he were looking through her rather than at her.

"Bucky? You remember me, right? I'm Lina Gérard, your neighbor from down the hall." she explained, as she knelt a few feet away from him so that she wouldn't frighten him further.

Ever so slowly, he nodded.

"Good! Now, I need you to do something for me, Bucky. I want you to watch and breathe with me, okay?" she drew in a deep breath and so did he. "Good!" she encouraged, as she released the breath. "Again." she took another breath and watched as he mirrored her movements. "Good! Now you keep doing that, okay?"

Taking a moment to look around, Lina noticed the key still in the lock on Steve's door. Standing up from her position, she finished unlocking it and knelt back down in front of him.

"Bucky, do you think that you can get up and walk?"

Again, he nodded, before slowly standing to his feet and walking through the entrance. Their apartment was arranged in a similar fashion to Lina's. There was a little foyer inside the door, followed by a short hall that led into the living room, a small kitchen could be accessed through an archway to the left, and the doors to the two bedrooms and bathroom could be found in another short hall to the right.

Bucky had halted right inside the living room, his breath still coming in short gasps. Lina walked past him toward the black leather couch in the middle of the room. "Here, sit down...please?" she added, giving him a choice so that he wouldn't feel as if she were commanding him. He moved forward and edged toward the seat at the end, furthest away from where she stood. "Okay, you concentrate on calming your breathing and I'll get you a glass of water to sip on." she said, turning toward the kitchen.

She opened the various cabinets above the sink until she found a glass and then held it under the faucet until it was full. As she turned around to go back into the other room, she was startled to find Bucky standing in the doorway, anxiously watching her. His breathing had finally calmed somewhat, but he was looking at the glass in her hand warily.

"You startled me, Mr. Barnes." Lina told him, placing her free hand over her now racing heart.

"I...I wanted to make sure you didn't...put anything in the water." he explained, with a furrowed brow.

"Oh, well, if you don't trust that I didn't, you're welcome to pour this out and get some for yourself." she offered, diplomatically.

"No, I watched you." he said, taking the glass from her outstretched hand and taking a sip.

Lina gave a small smile as she at first watched him and then looked at the room around her, allowing her thoughts to wonder, "Where's Steve?" she asked.

"On a mission." was Bucky's reply.

"Oh." was her response. "And you're here by yourself?"

He nodded, staring questioningly at her.

"You really shouldn't be on your own if you're having panic attacks like you just had, especially after such an ordeal like the trial." she explained.

"I'll be fine." he quickly said.

Lina scoffed, "How long were you sitting out there before I came along?"

"I don't know...a while." he shrugged, not meeting her gaze, but staring down into the remaining water in the glass.

"Exactly!" she replied. "Would you like to talk about it? About what caused the attack?"

He shook his head sharply, before replying in a short tone, "No."

"Alright, I won't pressure you." She put up her hands in a placating gesture. "If you don't want to talk, then you don't have too."

He continued to sip his water and stare at her, as she bit her lip and looked uncomfortably around at the rather bare kitchen.

"Have you eaten?" she suddenly asked.

Again, he wordlessly shook his head.

Lina remained quiet for a moment, contemplating what she was about to say before speaking, "Okay, how about this, since I don't want to leave you here by yourself, how about you come over to my place? I'll fix us some food and we can watch a movie or something, take your mind off of things."

He looked warily at her and she could tell that he was debating upon whether he could trust her or not, so she kept her expression open and inviting. Several awkward minutes passed in this manner before, "Errol Flynn?" he abruptly asked.

Lina looked at him confused, "I'm sorry?"

"Do you have any Errol Flynn movies?"

She smiled a small smile, "You know what, I think that I might have one buried somewhere deep in my movie collection...if I remember rightly."

"Okay." he nodded in agreement, sitting the half empty glass on the kitchen counter.

"Alright, follow me." she said, walking past him and back out into the outside hall where she had left her forgotten groceries. Taking out her key and unlocking her door, she looked back to find him right behind her, "Let me just get these inside," she said, leaning down to pick up the bags, only to realize that Bucky had already grabbed them all with his left hand and stood waiting.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that." she said, as she opened the door and let him in first, directing him toward the kitchen, where he placed the food on the counter. "Thank you." she smiled.

"Your welcome." he replied, quietly.

A moment of silence passed between them, while Lina put away her various groceries, "So, any preferences for the food?" she asked, breaking the quiet.

"There's more than one option?" he asked.

"Of course! My goodness, what has Steve been feeding you?" she asked, playfully.

"Something he calls, 'takeout.'" he replied, with another furrow of his brow.

"Well, takeout's good every now and again, but I prefer cooking for myself when I can. And this so happens to be one of those nights. So, what's it to be? We could have spaghetti, baked chicken, I've got some microwavable TV dinners, if you'd prefer one of those..."

"Um...spaghetti, I guess." he interrupted.

"Okay, that I can do." she agreed, taking out the proper cooking equipment that she would need. Then she remembered how concerned he had been over the idea of her possibly putting something in a simple glass of water, so she turned to him and asked, "Would you like to help?"

He paused for a moment, his gaze looking rather distant as if he were trying to remember something,"I don't believe I was ever much of a cook." he said.

"That's okay, you can do the easy stuff..." Lina replied, assigning him some small task. She tried to keep him away from anything sharp in case he had another attack. Soon enough their food was done and Lina was dishing it out on two plates and then filling some glasses with some soda.

Lina handed a plate and a glass to him and they both made their way into the living room, sitting everything down on the coffee table in front of the couch. She then began to examine her movie collection. She seemed to remember buying an old Errol Flynn movie once, because the cover and the summary on the back had intrigued her. Now she just had to find it.

"Aha!" she cried, a minute later, holding up the case to the movie. "The Adventures of Robin Hood. How's that one sound?"

"I think I liked that one." Bucky replied, before stuffing another bite of spaghetti into his mouth.

"You know, I've had this for a long time and I don't think I've ever sat down and watched it." she stated, shaking her head, as she opened it.

"You bought something that you didn't intend to watch?" he looked at her, confused.

"Yeah, it happens. Impulse buying and what not." Lina shrugged and he looked even more confused. "Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Barnes." She turned to put the disc into its proper place in the player.

"Bucky." she heard him say softly.

"Pardon?" she asked, hitting play on the remote control and then turned around to face him as the old fashioned Warner Bros. logo appeared on the television screen.

"Call me Bucky." he repeated, quietly.

"Okay, Bucky. But only if you call me Lina."

He nodded, "Alright,...Lina." he said her name, testing it out.

The opening credits of the movie began to roll and Lina settled herself down on her end of the couch to eat. For the next hour and a half, she lost herself in the story of Robin Hood. Occasionally, she would glance over at the man sitting beside her and, after one such glance, she was surprised to see a small smile tugging at the corner of Bucky's lips, his eyes alight as he watched the old film. She had to admit that she enjoyed it too. It may have been an old adaption, but Lina realized that it had its charms.

As the movie ended, she said as much. "...Though my favorite Robin Hood adaption is and shall always be, 'Men in Tights.'" she joked.

"What's that?" Bucky asked, looking rather horrified by the idea of men wearing tights.

Lina gave him a rather suspicious grin and made her way over to her movie shelf. She pulled out the case that read, "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and handed it to him.

"It's a comedy movie made by a director called Mel Brooks." she explained.

"Oh." he said in realization, turning the case in his hands and reading the description on the back. "Maybe...maybe we could watch it sometime?" he suggested, in a small voice.

"Sure!" she agreed, once again surprised. She smiled a friendly smile and then said, "I would let you borrow it, but I didn't see anything that even remotely looked like a Blu-ray player in your apartment. So, unless Steve has one stashed somewhere, I doubt you would have a way of playing it."

He nodded, handing it back to her. "He's due back tonight." he said.

"Who? Steve?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"I would appreciate it if...well, if you didn't..." he trailed off, sounding uncertain.

"If I didn't tell him that you had a panic attack in the hallway?" she guessed.

"Yes. He'll just worry."

Lina internally debated with herself. Medically speaking she knew that she should tell Steve so that he could make sure that Bucky was receiving the proper care for his attacks, if he was receiving care at all. "Do you see a therapist?" she finally asked.

"Yeah," he said. "It was one of the stipulations of my release."

"Have you told your therapist about your attacks?"

He was quiet for a minute, "No. I haven't."

She sighed, "Okay, here's the deal...if you tell your doctor about your attacks, I won't tell Steve."

He looked troubled by this.

"Is something wrong?"

"If I tell my therapist about them, he'll want to put me on medication...and I don't want to take anything."

Lina worriedly bit her lip, she could understand his hesitation. The man had basically been held captive for over 70 years, having God knew what being pumped into his system at every chance, of course he would be hesitant to take anything else, "Okay." she gave into his request. "I won't tell anyone. But here's what I am going to do. I'm going to give you my cell phone number and, whenever you feel an attack coming on, or even if you just want to talk, you call me, alright? Even if I'm at work, I'll see that you called and call you back." she suggested, reaching for the notepad and pen that she kept by the apartment's old landline phone. "You do have a cell phone, right?"

He nodded.

"Okay, good." she said, as she wrote down her number.

"Why?" Bucky asked, quietly.

"Sorry?"

"Why would you help me?"

Lina looked at him for a moment in silence, "Because you deserve to be helped, Bucky." she explained, quietly.

Another very slight smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

"Besides, you should consider yourself lucky, a guy usually has to buy me a drink before I give him my number." she joked, grinning and winking at him, as she handed him the note.

"I just might have to do that, doll." he replied, smiling fully for the first time. Then the smile faded and he looked rather surprised at himself, almost as if he was uncertain as to whether that line had actually came out of his mouth.

Lina decided to just go with it and laughed, playfully narrowing her eyes, "God, I bet you were a charmer back in the day."

He shyly looked down with a slight blush coloring his cheeks, "Steve says that I was, but I don't really remember all that much."

She sat yourself back down beside him, "I think you will in time." she said, sobering. "Just don't rush things. The healing process can take a while, especially after something like you've been through."

He nodded again.

There was a short silence between them, then, "You said that I could call you at work...Can I ask what you do?" he asked, slight curiosity coloring his voice.

"I'm a doctor. Or at least hoping to be. I'm in my fourth year of medical school and they make us train on location at a nearby hospital. Of course, I ended up getting the emergency room rotation." she grumbled, as she finished her explanation.

"Sounds like hard work."

"Well, for the most part it's non-life-threatening stuff, like bee stings and broken arms, but God forbid there's a car accident or something, that's when it gets hard."

"But you enjoy it?"

Lina paused for a moment, contemplating, "Yeah, I do. I like helping people. My parents always said I was a natural at it, since I was always bringing home strays and injured animals and taking care of them. They thought it was only natural that I would move up from that to actual humans. I suppose I could've been a veterinarian." She laughed quietly at herself.

"How long have you lived in New York?" Bucky asked, with a cute tilt of his head.

"I've been here for a few years now. I came for college and then decided to attend med school here. I guess I kinda fell in love with the city." she smiled, remembering a fact that she had learned in high school about Captain America. "You and Steve are originally from here, right?"

This time a true smile, though a nostalgic one, appeared on his lips, "Yeah, we grew up in Brooklyn."

"I can't even imagine what that would be like, especially in the period you grew up in."

Bucky nodded, but remained quiet, not commenting. After a minute of silence passed, he asked, "Have you ever been to Coney Island?"

It surprised her that he seemed to be talking and opening up a bit more. When she had first met him in the hall it had seemed like earning his trust would indeed be a monumental task, but she was glad that that didn't seem to be the case...not where she were concerned at least. "No, I've never had the time to check it out." she answered.

"I don't know if it's still the same as it was, but when Steve and I were young, at least from the little that I do remember, it was one of our favorite haunts. That and Rockaway beach."

"I haven't been to either of them."

Bucky once again glanced shyly down at his hands, "Maybe...we could go someday...I mean all of us...Steve and everybody." he said, including Steve and everyone else in his small circle of acquaintances, so that he felt less awkward about his choice of words.

"Yeah, maybe." she grinned again.

Suddenly there were footsteps in the hall outside and Steve's voice could be heard talking with Sam. "It sounds like Steve's made it back."

"Yeah, I should probably go." Bucky replied, standing up from the couch. "Thanks...um...for dinner and...for helping me out."

"Your welcome." she held out her hand for a shake.

He looked at it hesitantly for a few seconds and then slowly reached his own out. They shook hands, his enveloping hers in its warmth, and then she walked him to the door. "Remember what I said, Bucky. If you need me all you have to do is call...or you're more than welcome to knock on my door."

"I'll remember." he replied, as he crossed the threshold of her apartment. "Good night, Lina."

"Good night, Bucky."

Lina smiled softly, as she closed the door behind him.

 **XXX**

 **Well, that's chapter two! Hopefully this is translating well into an Bucky/OC fic from a Bucky/Reader one. Please review, if you like.**


End file.
